Mubashir Aalam Wani
Srinagar, Oct 14: The ongoing power crisis within the valley has brought down production by more than 60 per cent in the industrial sector, claim valley industrialists.
Kashmir for the last few weeks has been witnessing an immense power crisis as such the Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited is all set to announce its first curtailment schedule.
Shahid Kamili, president Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK) said that the ongoing power crisis has badly hit the industrial sector in the valley.
While he claimed that losses have mounted worth crores of Rupees, he said the production has gone down by 65 per cent since last one month.
“Even though we have limited hours of work, the industrial sector doesn’t get the desired power supply. The situation is such that the production has gone down by 65 per cent, which means a big loss to the sector,” he said.
The industries, which, as per Kamili are mostly hit include cold storage, apple grading and packaging industries and furniture industries.
“These are some of the industries, which require uninterrupted supply of electricity. The machines used in these industries are automatic, which require constant supply of electricity. Our members are constantly saying that these industries are suffering due to the non-availability of abundant electricity during peak hours,” he said.
President Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) Javaid Ahmad Tenga said they are getting SoS calls from various industrialists about the impact of the poor electricity supply.
“Handicraft artisans and dealers have been constantly telling us about the suffering of the sector due to the current power crisis. The tourism sector has also started facing problems now. There is a massive drop in production by industries currently,” he said.
Tenga said the lack of proper electricity was leading to the cost escalation to the industries. “Everything currently works on generators which is leading to the cost escalation to the industrialists. We recently approached the government with the demand to ensure uninterrupted power supply but nothing has happened so far,” he said.
The KCCI has demanded the establishment of a fact-finding committee to delve into the underlying factors responsible for the ongoing power crisis in Kashmir.
